“Heather is awesome,” said Patrick Guckin, Director of Career and Technical Education at St. Johnsbury Academy. He worked with Heather as the high school developed its new CTE program, which began this academic year with its first class of students. He said, “Heather is passionate about building the plumbing and heating industry in the region.”

Heather got her start in the plumbing and heating industry when she was only 19 years old. She was hired as a receptionist at Trombly Plumbing and Heating. “It was the third job I’d ever had, and it was supposed to be just temporary,” she remembered.

Instead of working in the industry for only a three-week stint, she kept taking on more and more work, learning the ropes of the plumbing and heating business both inside the office and in the field. In 2011, Heather purchased the business from Dan Trombly and assumed the top leadership role in the company.

Before moving into the owner’s seat, the extent of hands-on work Heather had taken on was, “simple things, like caulking around joints,” she said. When she became the owner, “I thought it was important to go out with the guys and learn the job. I went on sewer calls, no-heat calls because I thought it was important to know what was involved with the work.”

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a collaboration was being built between St. Johnsbury Academy and Heather Wallek. She explained, “I reached out to Pat about three years ago. I wanted to get a program the same as the way SJA trains electricians, which allows kids to graduate from high school and test out of a year of the required state apprenticeship program.” To become a licensed plumber in Vermont, almost 600 hours of classroom work is required on top of 8,000 hours of on-the-job training.

“We were going to do a pilot program at the adult level in the evenings,” said Guckin, “but then the pandemic hit, and we had to put everything on pause.”

It may have been unexpected downtime, but the Academy used the elapsing months to good purpose. During the COVID shutdown, the Academy completed a comprehensive local needs assessment required for the receipt of federal funds to support career-technical education. “We collected labor information that supported starting a full plumbing and heating program for high school students,” said Guckin.

The program is largely modeled on a course of study offered in Laconia, N.H. This autumn, the Academy program opened with a group of 13 students. The instructor is Jeff Roberts, a master plumber with 20 years of experience.

“Heather was very instrumental in getting our program approved by the state,” said Guckin. She has many state and industry contacts, wrote a letter of support for the new program, and she is now part of the program’s community advisory board. Guckin noted that other plumbing and heating firms in the region have also been very supportive of the new CTE program.

Students learn plumbing and heating skills through projects in a mock house located on the SJA campus. Among the many projects they undertake are the installation of sinks, toilets, and showers. After gaining basic skills, they move on to work real-world jobs. One project now underway is the construction of a home in Danville by SJA building trades students, where the work of the new plumbing and heating students is an integral part.

Due to the generosity of a large New Hampshire plumbing supply company (whose owner has a home in the area), the new CTE program has a large stockpile of items used in the trade – sinks, faucets, on-demand water heaters, traditional water heaters, toilets, tubing, etc. “The value of the donation is over $80,000,” said Guckin.

Another of Heather’s projects, which also has a history that goes back to before the COVID pandemic, is to start a post-secondary trade school in St. Johnsbury. In Vermont, there are hundreds of jobs that require licensure – and to retain those licenses over the years, workers need to undergo continuing education.

The Vermont Department of Public Safety is responsible for the licensing of plumbers and electricians. It also oversees the licenses for jobs including propane and natural gas installers, elevator and lift mechanics, fire alarm installers, energy generator installers, and chimney sweeps.

At the trade school Heather wants to establish, she wants to offer programs to support those careers. “I want to do it here and I want to do it interesting,” she said, noting that many of the currently available continuing education classes for skilled tradesmen are boring.

To date, Heather has completed state and federal business filings, and she has named her proposed trades school “Trades Up.” She is working with the Vermont Small Business Development Center, is actively searching for grant funding, and is scoping out possible locations for the training center.

Currently, Heather has found instructors for two classes: the EPA Section 608 air conditioning technician certification, which requires two days of instruction, and the NORA Bronze level oil burner technician certification, which involves 80 hours of instruction.

“I don’t know why I feel it’s my job,” to offer skilled trades training and to advocate for both high school and post-secondary instruction, said Heather, but then she added, “There is a lot more I want to do.”

Besides her educational advocacy, Heather Wallek is busy providing direct instruction to young people and adults, both to better educate the public about simple home fixes and to recruit new talent into an industry where licensed tradesmen are aging out of the workforce. Heather said that in the last 18 months, up to eight master plumbers from the region have retired.

If you are a homeowner and would like to learn some basic maintenance skills, Heather has twice offered a class at her business at the corner of Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue in St. Johnsbury called “Plumbing and Heating Tricks and Tips.” She has advertised the class on Front Porch Forum.

Heather has also done presentations at events organized by the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC). Students learn skills like threading and joining pipes or installing sinks or toilets. “We bring four stations … Students learn that they don’t have to be super strong to do the work; they just need to be able to work with their hands and solve problems,” said Heather.

She has also been involved in workshops on a national stage. Heather has taught for a group called Women in Energy which holds an annual event in Hershey, Pa. Recently, Heather was very pleased to receive an invitation to be a presenter at a program sponsored by Vermont Works for Women called “Trailblazers,” at which women and gender-expansive individuals ages 16 and up can get trades training free of charge. The event has traditionally been held in Burlington and Rutland. This year the event will also be held at North Country Career Center in Newport, from May 20 to July 3. For more information and to sign up, go to https:/vtworksforwomen.org/event/trailblazers-in-newport.

Work in the skilled trades has traditionally been a man’s world, but many labor specialists now say that without the recruitment of women to the field there will not be a workforce large enough to meet society’s needs.

On the one hand, there has been good news in recent years. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in 2021 the number of women working in skilled trades was the highest it ever has been, an increase of 32.1 percent. That seems to be a huge increase, but the reality is less rosy. Currently, women only represent 4 percent of the skilled trades workforce, a fact reported on the trades training website Zippia.com.

The site also notes that there is not a lot of ethnic diversity in the skilled trades, which is comprised of 65.9 percent of workers considered to be white, 21.9 percent Hispanic, and 5.8 percent black Americans.

In Vermont, according to recent Agency of Education statistics, only 10 percent of the students enrolled in CTE classes are female.